Young Runner duck can't walk

[mominoz]

I realised one of my almost 2 month old Runners wasn't standing, or walking or getting into the pool today . He just squawked when others stepped on him. I picked him up and looked at his legs , they looked ok. Everything looks ok, but when he tries to get up , he just can't seem too.Doesn't seem distressed, bright eyed etc. He lives in an outdoor bombproof aviary with his siblings.I clean the water everyday. They are on peapond round stones I hose every couple days. He is getting TS , grower developer 15% for poultry including ducks and geese and I add brewers yeast to that, also a bit of oats. I try to give a bit of grass, or carrots or lettuce daily. I separated him and put food and water within reach, which he went after greedily. But he is right next to his siblings , so he can see them, but they can't tromp on him. I wondered if I should bring him into the garage or just let him stay next to his flock in a separate area, and watch him. Just seems like he can't stand up--- Other than wait and see I don't kow what else to do. He is from Holdereads and I looked in my "Poultry and waterfowl problem" book - I Put a bigger pool in their pen, and thought maybe he tripped getting out ... Nothing could grab him, 3ft hardware cloth under 2X2 with HOt wired sides on aviary.Tehy do dabble when I hose out their pen, unless he ate something in poo.. but there are only 6 in a 7X20 pen...............?

 

[mominoz]

update; She (noisy quacker) is fine now it seems. Gradually she improved , I did find she liked a Slurp- watered down feed very much.. kept feed and water in front of her in a combo feeder/waterer. I held her for a week to feed,increased brewers yeast in case it wasn't enough ,( that I had been adding.) She started to try to crawl, stand and when she could partially stand at an angle and walk some I put her back with her flock and kept an eye on her. She is now standing and walking upright. And she is very noisy when she sees me ;0)
So thanks to those who said, not to give up, it took 3 weeks for her to recover.

 

[schleitheim]

Thank you so much for updating!

Our runner (Cheetah) seems to be doing better today. We were worried about her yesterday because she laid down all day. Today she is standing some, but we still have her separated out from the rest of the flock. Today we also moved one of the Campbells in with her because the Campbell (Bacon) is also starting to fall down. Out of all four of our ducks, Cheetah has always been the weakest. When she was a newbie, she liked to lay down a lot. They are both still very interested in food, so that gives me a lot of hope.

Right now, they are almost 9 weeks, and we are feeding them a diet of 70% mashed potatoes, 8% chopped sugar beets, 7% cracked wheat, 5% cracked corn and steel cut oats, 10% protein (in the form of buttermilk, yogurt cheese, or cottage cheese) brewer's yeast, 1/4 tsp diatomaceous earth per duck (for now) and 1 Tablespoon of Kombucha per duck. When I have them, I am trying to feed the scoby (or baby culture) from the Kombucha to the ducks because of the vitamins and probiotics that they will get from them (and we read that lots of bird owners feed their extra scoby to their birds). We also give them a bit of grit mixed in their food.

Thanks again for posting this update. It really has given us hope that our efforts are not in vain. Only time shall tell what the outcome will be.

Kimbrah and Eddie (owners of four 9 week old ducklings: Cheetah--Blue Runner, Sassafras or Sassy--Fawn and White Runner, Bacon--Khaki Campell, and Meiling--Khaki Campbell)

 

[kerstine]

Our poor girlie has been limping as well. Since I have been bugging an Osteopathic physician, he checked on her and found she may have septic arthritis, which ducks apparently are prone to.

We put her on Antibios now. Apparently ducks with SA respond well to Amoxicillin. Amoxicillin is a very common antibio, check your medical cabinet, you may still have some leftovers from yourself. If not: the infant formula is best suitet for this since you can just drip it into the beak.

However, it has to be given in a particular way, unlike how you give it to humans:

Day 1: 3 times a day 20mg per kg of the bird's bodyweight.

Day 2: Do nothing.

Day 3: 3 times a day 20mg per kg of the bird's bodyweight.

Afterwards (s)he should be better.